Eye sweet! Bike Improvement Needed! Uni around the corner!

Todays session on the bikes involved a 4-man time trial around Indro Golf Course. I was sorted into a so-called slow group. But in in this group I struggled at times to maintain the close quarters required for group bike. Whether this was a combination of uneasy following so close or simply my bike performance. In the aftermath of Bribie where it was my bike that let me down I am really seeking improvement. The main things I believe I need to improve is 1) My riding style, I am still putting too much weight on my forearms not on my core, back did not take kindly to this mornings high speed session, 2) Need to improve my riding at speed, more confidence on corners, 3) Simply need to get more hours on the bike i.e. no lazy weekends wasting time. Eye turned out to be fine as I suspected, must've been dust or an eyelash.

With Uni only 4-5 days away now I can really feel the car of my life reving its engine just waiting to knock up a gear. I up looking forward to this gear shift as I truly believe that I will be more productive in my training, gamsat prep, work and uni studies. Pump it Up!

Bloody Eye again, Grrrrrrrrr!

Can't believe my eye's are playing up again. It was extremely weird this morning as due to a number of bad nightmares I was tossing and turning and basically awake from 2am but the contact didn't feel bad until about 3:30 when I absent mindly rubbed it and all hell broke loose. As it is my left eye which generally does not get infected and also there is no redness apparent, I suspected that it was something else in my eye but playing it safe and missing training this morning. While this is not ideal build-up for Sunday's race, I definately need to be able to wear contacts for the race so it overrules. Have not swam for a fortnight since Bribie and haven't riden for almost a week which is concerning me a fair bit. Might depending on the state of my eye swim today or go for a bike ride. Fingers Crossed my eye clears up.

Boom!....I am IRONMAN!

Grrrrrr! Really pumped up still from this mornings session. It was 3 sets of 3 1km runs. One at easy, one at tempo and one at flat out with the aim to improve time each falt out 1km. First one got caught in the pack at the start and resulted in a 3:40 km. The second went a bit better as I got away from the pack and took 6 seconds off for 3:34. After a pump up by the coach of us as the news members of the group and the whole group everyone was raring to go. 1....2......3....(think the sound of a heart beat slowly pumping)..... Go! Every one rared off. Legs felt like concrete and lungs burning I turned to my mental slogan, while a bit cliqueish as I had just watched the new Iron man movie, it was...I AM IRONMAN!!... But as cliqueish as it is it really does work and with the help of a competing teammate on my heels I pumped through and exploded with 100 to go finishing with 3:26 taking 8 seconds off the previous and almost 20 sceonds in the session. The last 100m explosive sprint felt really good, I don't think I felt that strong and powerful before on a running track, I can tell you it was addictive. Live Strong & Peace Out! (picture from knoworacle.wordpress.com)

Year Begininng to Crank Up

I can feel a distinct change in my general feel, I can feel the momentum of 2009 really begin to fire up. Looking through my diary I realise that next week is my last week of holidays and it'll be under a month before GAMSAT. Really I am busting my gut in the proverbial dressingroom ready to "start" my 2009. The small remainder of the holidays has kicked me into gear. I am getting my mindset ready, registering for subjects and other prep for resuming a flat out life. Will have to write up my Uni avails for work, unfortunately work will pick up in 3-4 weeks as the new bars will be completed and more staff will be needed for them, which is annoying as I was hoping for a lot of hours during the hols but they just weren't there. But I believe that I can be organised to work more weekly hours this semester and am raring to get stuck into some more specifc Uni info. Push the limits!

TRI:Blind in one Eye and Can't see out the other

Had an interesting tri session on the bike today. Had a big time trial around St Lucia. Felt fairly good, had power, endurance, no cramps etc. Still only beating/ maintaining my position relative to the same people but then again have only had my "real" bike for 3 weeks now. The main problem in this session was that my contact had gone walkabout. This meant that I was pretty much blind in one eye. I had rubbed my eye and thought the contact had fallen out but I could still feel something present in my eye. Upon returing home having survived the session just, I had a poke and feel around and found the contact curled underneath my upper eyelid. Weird hey! Started the day in a decent mood hopefully this can be converted into motivation for GAMSAT study. Heres Hoping

Bumper Tri Session but still no Gamsat motivation

This morning we did 5x2km sets, alternating between tempo and hard. This is probaly my first really big session and I am very happy with my performance. I managed to keep up with or about 30 meters behind the coach, Smoothy who was also happy with my performance. Upon the warm down lap though the groin strain I picked up at oztag really tightened up and my eye started to sting. But otherwise an excellent session. Even though I had this bumper session I got home had a little rest etc and attempted to get into some serious Gamsat study but lasted only 1.25 hours, Then gave up and snoozed for the rest of the day. I am going to try to study early morning and late nights to see if this is a better more productive approach. Peace out!

3...2...1...And I'm hooked!

Early Sunday morning as I jumped into the car too find out if all those early morning sessions and the money I've invested in tri was worth it. Went through registration and transition pretty smoothly and was all ready for the race. The hooter blurted out and before I knew it I had began the swim. This is where I struggled. I found all the swimers in close, the murky water and the utter chaos that is the swim leg of a triathlon very confronting. I don't know why but my technique etc went out the window probaly due to this confrontation of the swim. Anyway I was in an average position from the start. However upon jumping on the bike and running the run confidence soon returned and I powered past many others. Overall it was a good starter race and it definately has made me addicted to the tri. In terms of how I felt after the race, I really felt it was too short, as in most circumstances I had just settled into the legs but before I knew it I was back in transition and into another leg. I probaly should have done more of a warm-down after the race but didn't and feel ok anyway. I have since had another eye issue arise and along with lack of sleep and a car service, this has lead me back into a lazy rut, which I'll have to pull myself out of tomorrow. Forward, Forward onto further challenges!

Tri Series: It BURNS! It BURNS!

With respect to those in Victoria, today's session really felt like swimming,cycling and running through the River Styx. While taken seperately the sessions weren't that much above normal intensity but doing them in one block was dead tiring.The swim (800 warm up, 500m time trial, 2 sets of 50m) felt alright, not quite as smooth as Monday but still felt fairly slick and powerful. The windtrainer (mechanism that allows you to use your own bike as a stationary bike) session was of normal intesity, 10 minutes hard going down a gear (harder) every two mintues with 2 mins rest containing one-legged drills, the next set was the same but dropped down to 8mins and so on. I seem to have gotten used to my bike fairly quick and my bike ability is on the rise. The real killer of the session was doing the swim and bike then a slowish 5km run which a couple of clubmates and I decided to go on. First time I have gone for a long run straight off the bike. Was hard and tiring as my legs were heavy and cumbersome for pretty much the entire course. It was volunteery but with my first race on the horizon I thought it would be good to gain more experiance. I think that I could improve the run by spinning during a race which is different to what the windtrainer session was doing. Overall a very tough but as always rewarding session.

GAMSAT Series: Still lacking longevity in Test

Did my fornightly full practise test with similar timings etc of the GAMSAT exam. I have yet to mark it but my thoughts on how I went are as follows;
Sec 1) THis section felt really good I zoomed through it and went through the problem questions again. Finished 30minutes to early and didn't have the want to check again. Felt as though I was confident with the questions and my answers. OF (overall feel)=7/10
Sec 2) First essay Task A seemed to go well and flow well but task B I seemed to lose track and repeat my self a bit but it was still average. Overall, legibility needs to improve dramatically, happy with my practise of Task A, need to do a bit of work on writiing for Task B though. OF=6/10
Sec 3) Another poor perforamce, losing motivation after 40 questions and had very little before. I think that doing and repeating questions from the booklet is leading to a false sense of perforance. Felt like I could do bad because I didn't have enough science under my belt i.e. making excuses. Very dissappointed in myself. My thinking is that perhaps I need to do the test in a library situation away from distractions. OF=3/10
I will mark the test tonight and reveal my tactics in the tool bar- Fortnightly GAMSAT Focus

Terror in Victoria: Bushland FireStorm Claims 108 and climbing

I can't help but comment on the weekends crazy bushfires in Victorian bushland. The excellent coverage has brought the bone-chilling pictures to the rest of Australia and the world. Some of the pictures are terrifying with flames licking up twice as high as the 20 meter trees, charred remains of people's cars and perhaps the most terrifying is the aerial view of some of the towns, where the fire has literally burnt the whole every building and piece of civilisaion to the ground. I can feel the utter terror and anxiety of those who had to flee from the fires. Talking to a patron last night at work he said that in some cases you couldn't out run the front and people had to result to taking refuge in their properties dams. He also exclaimed that it was the worst day/weekend in Austalian History. At first I thought that it was a bit of an overstatment but upon further thought and a climbing death toll. I too believe it to be the worst days in Australian history, other major disasters in Aus have claimed no where near the number dead in recent history anyway and other major catastrophes such as the 2004 tsunami and the World Wars have occured mainly offshore away from Australia. My thoughts go out to all those lost. (Images from news.ninemsn.com.au)

Tri Series:Silky smooth through the Water

Had my first decent pool session this morning. Decent meaning that I kept up and my technique etc felt really good and strong. So I'm on a big high for the rest of the day so far. The specifics of the session were; 1) 800m Pull,swim,form,kick 2) 8x50m 3) 10x100m Hard out first 75m. Although I've still got a long way to go to compete with the squads top members, I am starting to see and feel results. One of my teammates also said that I had bulked up, not exactly what I intended but its better then remaining in a stagnant fitness plateau. Pumped for a ripper day!!

My Rollercoaster of a Saturday

Well in terms of my mood, enthusiaism and productivity it really was an rollercoaster. Got off work early on Friday night so that I could get up for an early morning bike ride. I got up and was in a really good mood jumped on my bike and did the river loop (From toowong through St Lucia to Gracville then through Highgate Hill and South Bank and back to Toowong, about 40km's I;ve heard. I 'm still so happy with my bike, it performs so well. Had another couple of close calls involving unclipping and clipping in at Traffic stops. It was a good session but I think to really ramp up my improvements on the bike I need to get in a group ride of a high level as I probaly took the ride too lightly, exertion wise. My mood for the day peaked during the ride. Soon After showering and attempting to start some GAMSAT study, my mood was sent into a deep downward spiral, draining my energy and productivity. I debated with myself the best way to do my background study for Section 3 and probably wasted an hour or so before I developed a clear cut plan. I have obtained from searching around the internet a rough guide as to what science you should have background knowledge in. I decided to print that off and attacked the study as folllows;
1. Write what I already knew off the top of m head
2. Research and complete notes on the topics
3. Find and do heaps of questions in the areas
4. Repeat until confident in my background knowledge
The rest of the day was a very lazy, frustrating affair! I had next to no energy, I ate poorly, a rare lapse in the past couple of weeks. At work I watched my workmates in the bar hit on by all the good-looking women in the room while I was left unnoticed. Being so shy your almost unable to talk to attractive women sucks! But oh well, suck it up and look forward to tomorrow and brighter pastures I say!

Creating a Blog does help Motivate!

I didn't realise how much creating this blog would try to motivate me to attend training on those off days so I could post about them. I felt a burning senastion to go right through work (which I finished at 4am) to Swim training at 5am and 6am. Commonsense prevailed and my plan was to skip swim and go to the 6am run. However I was failed by my damn alarm clock.Grrrrr!

GAMSAT: Section III a BIG Problem

Today I did 2 practise essay's and Section 1 and 3 practise 1/2 tests. Big issue today revolved around my compentency in Section 3: The science section! Today in the practise achieved only 33.33% in Section 3 which I find deeply disappointing. I think I went through too quickly and am still lacking in basic physics knowledge combined with my lack of science study in the past 3 months due to an extensive Uni holiday. To attempt to improve my marks in this section tomorrow I plan to go over my notes, do practise questions from my Uni course and research and practise questions in Physics. Todays Performance= Application: 7/10;Performance 4/10

TRI Series: New Bike and First Session

Picked up my new road bike on Monday this week and I am totally stoked by how it has performed to date. It is my first decent bike, my first road bike and the first bike that I have clip-ins for. To anyone considering a serious attempt at triathlon or bike racing I recommend clip in pedals. Of course it takes time, money and effort to get used to clipping in but it is worth it 100%. I am still learning and this has resulted in some hilarious stacks and a fair amount of the expensive cleat worn off. Had the first group ride with it this morning and it performed well. For the first time I actually kept up with the pack and overtook people while we were doing the set. It was excellent weather and a good temperature during today's session. This session was a far more accurate gauge of how my cycling performance is going. I am above some but still a far way off the leading cyclists. Training Performance: 7/10

The GAMSAT Series

This series will track my progress through my GAMSAT study and will give out my tips, how i'm traveling and how I eventually go. I am driven to get into Medical School after my First Attempt at the GAMSAT exam. A BIG goal to set I know but I believe that with consistent study and the requirement of my posts on this blog to allow me to hopefully achieve this

The Triathlon Series

This series of blogs I am creating to track my way through my traning and experiances of triathlon. This will be used to motivate myself and attempt to add tips and bits of info for others as I found reading through some other triathlon blogs awesome inspiration

Tungs